


Bill Denbrough Sparks Controversy With New Novel

by theliteraltrash



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Journalism, M/M, News Media, Newspapers, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-30 01:22:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20806172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theliteraltrash/pseuds/theliteraltrash
Summary: The horror novelist's newest release - The Loser's Club - has created a massive debate due to its use of real life crimes.





	Bill Denbrough Sparks Controversy With New Novel

**Author's Note:**

> posted this from my phone so I can't change the formatting to mimic a news site so ✌

**Bill Denbrough Sparks Controversy With New Novel**

_ The horror novelist's newest release - The Loser's Club - has created a massive debate due to its use of real life crimes. _

By  Soren Alexys 

Published October 5th, 2017

  


William Denbrough released his newest and most chilling novel _ The Loser's Club _on the first of October. The novel is set in his hometown of Derry Maine, and opens with the real life hate crime of Adrian Mellon, a gay man that was killed at a festival just days before Denbrough retuened home in 2016. The story flashes between 1989 and 2016, and includes the real life murder of Denbrough's younger brother George.

Death isn't the only real thing that _ The Loser's Club _includes. Fashion designer Beverly Marsh, comedian Richie 'Trashmouth' Tozier, and Architect Ben Hanscom are also prominent characters in the novel. They, along with Mike Hanlon, Eddie Kaspbrak, and Stanley Uris, are members of the titular club. The seven of them are all real people, and were really childhood friends in the late 80s.

The premise of the novel is simple; a town is haunted by an intergalactic shapeshifter that feeds on fear, only to be defeated by 7 children and killed by them as adults. The entity, simply referred to as IT, goes into hibernation for 27 years only to resurface and continue to feast. The Losers are special children, as they are the only ones to fight IT and survive. Just a warning, this is about to get into heavy spoilers.

The Losers were all bullied growing up, and most of them lived in abusive households. This was apparently fairly commonplace for Derry up until the police force began doing their jobs in 2016. Local town bully Henry Bowers, who was also a real person has a gang of goons and they're all murderously violent. The real Henry Bowers was charged with the string of missing persons and murders in 1988 and 1989, including his own father. He was arrested and placed into Juniper Hill, a local hospital for the criminally insane. He escaped in 2016, and was charged with the murders and missing persons cases that followed. Later, he was found dead in the local library.

In the novel, Stanley Uris commits suicide because he is too terrified to return to Derry. In the final battle, Eddie Kaspbrak gets impaled by IT, and bleeds out with his last words being a love confession to Richie. In reality, neither of these men are dead. Uris attempted suicide on the date he passed in the novel, but his wife found him in time. Kaspbrak, on the other hand, can be found on Instagram and Twitter, as he is the boyfriend of recently out Richie Tozier.

In 1989, there was an actual string of missing persons cases and murders, and they didn't all make it to the novel. Many of the victims were children, and the searches were dropped with each new case. Derry had a history of cases like this, with Bangor residents going so far as to call Derry the murder capital of the world. Then, in 2016, there is a similar string of murders and missing persons. Reportedly, each real life Loser was actually in Derry in the days leading up to the cessation of the spree.

Mike Hanlon was the local librarian, and in the novel he was the one to call each Loser and tell them about ITs return, so that they could come and put and end to the curse. Richie Tozier promptly threw up, and then choked on his stand-up routine. This actually happened. Eddie Kaspbrak crashed his car. Beverly Marsh ran out on her abusive husband. Bill himself fled his movie set when they needed him most. Reports show that he actually did go MIA on the filming of his most recent adaptation.

There is debate on the ethics of Denbrough including the real life crimes of Derry in his novel.

_ "I'd hate to be in these people's families. Imagine reading a book and it exploits your loved ones murder for some neckbeard to get off on." _

_ "He used his actual brothers murder. It's sick. The guy's a total sociopath." _

_ "I feel bad for that Stan guy. His childhood friend is profiting off of his attempt." _

Denbrough defends the novel by stating that he grew up in Derry, so he knew more about it than anyone outside of the town.

_ "That place was Hell. No one f-cking talks about the sh-t that happened there. Everyone always turned a blind eye. Now you all know that something awful was happening there." _

Current and past residents of Derry actually don't take issue to the novel. We spoke to local woman Greta Keene, who was one of Beverly's bullies in the novel, about what she and everyone she knew thought of it.

_ "It was good. The ending sucked, but it really captured the soul sucking ickiness of this place." _

Ultimately, _ The Loser's Club _ does its job of shining a light on the horrid violence of society, and cognitive dissonance. We, like the average citizen of Derry, know something bad is happening, but we go about our day like normal because it doesn't affect us. Denbrough wanted to showcase the crimes he grew up surrounded by, and he did just that. No one talked about Derry before the release of the novel, and now its history is being put under a microscope in the public eye.


End file.
